Schengen Border Debate Welcome
Strasbourg -- Tuesday 10 May 2011
I welcomed the opportunity to debate Schengen today in the Chamber in Strasbourg. We have seen that Schengen has flaws and that it may be the time to update it. With the events in North Africa, and the increasing pressure on Member State borders, we need to look at how we can balance the need for free movement with security.
Britain is not a full member of the Schengen Agreement, which allows for free and unchecked movement of citizens across border in Europe. It has opted in to some of the protocols of the deal, and any decisions on Schengen will have ramifications for us.
This is what I said in the debate:
President, I and my Group welcome this opportunity to debate the issues and problems which Europe face in the area of migration and the Schengen system. This debate is long over due.
Now is the time to focus on not only providing free movement but on guarding the borders of Member States and the EU. It is not an unfair assessment to say that the current system is now flawed, and ill equipped. We need to create a tool which is representative of the modern needs of Europe's Member States. This needs to be met with a renewed strength in making sure that the agencies of the EU, like FRONTEX, are there to support Member States in securing the borders of the EU, and that the problems are not exacerbated by countries joining the EU and the Schengen area that are ill prepared to face the challenges and the burden that accompanies the benefits. Europe's immigration and Schengen policies require much needed review, reflection and reform.
Rather than pushing for more legislation in this area of immigration and migration, we should be making the legislation that we already have, work better and harder, for the citizens of the Europe Union. Member States need more control over their borders not less. Concerns from Member States are not reactionary or short term but instead the consequence of over twenty years of changing circumstances in Europe and around the world.
There is no doubt that Schengen has been a success in many ways, but Europe is facing challenges which simply did not exist to the current extent when the system was first created. Large scale unemployment, migration from North Africa, terrorism, organised crime, and people trafficking, have provided us with problems far more complex than the challenges of free movement for European Citizens.
